Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) | Hansard source

There's a lot not to like about this bill, and you can tell there's a lot not to like about a bill when no Labor member has their name on the present speaker's list to defend the bill, to spruik the bill or to promote the bill. And I ask: why? Where are the Labor members when it comes to talking about the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026? They're missing in action. There's a reason why they're missing in action. We just heard from the member for Grey, talking about the particular report by no less than Geoffrey Watson SC entitled Rotting from the top. He investigated the corruption and the misconduct in the notorious CFMEU's Victorian construction branch. This report became public because it was tendered at Queensland's commission of inquiry into that union and its activities. We learned that there was $15 billion of misappropriation. Let's call it that. It was $15 billion of taxpayers' money. It was $15 billion of funds that could have and should have been spent on things other than just going into union thugs' pockets. Let's call them what they are; they are union thugs. They are ruling the roost in Victoria. The sooner the Labor government is jettisoned from the Treasury benches in Victoria the better. The sooner they are a long way away from Spring Street the better off the nation will be—not just Victoria and not just Melbourne but, indeed, the country.

Geoffrey Watson SC found the enterprise agreement system in Victorian construction had been 'thoroughly corrupted', describing it as old-fashioned 'pay to play' corruption. It's not good. It's simply not good enough. When I was the infrastructure minister, I worked with—and worked well, I might add—the now Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, and we got some good things done. But, particularly in recent years, the CFMEU has become out of control. We hear terrible stories about the strong-arm tactics and the bully-boy worksite tactics used by John Setka and others. It's shameful. It's just not good enough.

The date 6 December 2022 was a dark day in the construction sector, particularly in Victoria, because that was the day when the Albanese federal Labor government put through the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022. What that did was it dismantled the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the cops on the beat, those who at worksites made sure that everything was as it should be in a fair and disciplined way. One would ask why an organisation such as the ABCC should be abolished. I have to give it to the Labor legislation title writers; they whacked in 'secure jobs, better pay' as if it were necessary, fair and much-wanted legislation. They've got a clever way of disguising what really is in the detail of any particular bill. That was one of the best examples of the worst kinds of bills. It was going to dismantle a group which was having such a positive and profound outcome on building sites.

The ABCC was a necessary watchdog. It truly was. It prevented unlawful union behaviour, the sorts of which are now on an industrial scale by the CFMEU. The ABCC also reduced project delivery costs for taxpayer funded infrastructure. When I refer to taxpayer funded infrastructure, I particularly refer to schools and to hospitals—those things which educate our children, those things which keep all of us alive—as well as roads. We know that we pay too much for roads. That's if we could get it in regional Australia, Member for Parkes. Your electorate is massive. So is mine. The upkeep, just the maintenance, of our roads has slipped markedly under this Labor government, let alone the construction of our roads. We know that when there's a Labor government in Canberra the split between federal and state is fifty-fifty. When there's a coalition government in Canberra, it's 80-20. So it's little wonder why the states delay construction on some of the bigger projects, particularly roads.

And, of course, the unions are always in there, trying to get their chop. They're always in there, trying to make sure that they can elicit funds, somehow, some way, from those big taxpayer funded projects so that they can stay in business—the business of being thugs on worksites. I was a union member once. I was a union member for 21 years with, firstly, the Australian Journalists Association, which then became the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. I ran into the new head of the MEAA in the corridors this week, and I will say this. I don't wish my colleagues to think any less of me, but unions have a role to play. They do.

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